Paris (AFP)

In 2019, Angèle, the young Belgian sensation, lady the pawn to Johnny Hallyday by taking the head of record sales in France, according to the classification of Snep (National Union of Phonographic Publishing).

By adding physical sales - CDs, vinyls - downloads and listening on platforms, "Brol" reached 532,111 sales in 2019 according to the main union of producers, confirming information from Paris on Tuesday.

The album, 730,000 sales since its release in 2018, made Angèle a star at 24 years old. The Belgian has also become one of the most followed singers on social networks (2.5 million subscribers on Instagram) where she is very active.

On October 23, Angèle celebrated two years since the release of her first song, "Murphy's Law". What word has she asked on her journey since then? "Tsunami, waterfall ... I vote whirlwind, it's not only negative, it implies that it can be very nifty," she replied to AFP in an interview published in early November.

His last two years have been "100%" fulfilled. "And since April and the Zenith tour I realized that I had taken a + step + (one more step): two years ago, I didn't even have a date in Paris, I playing in a bar is pretty crazy, "she added.

With 449,545 sales, "Les Étoiles vagabondes", rapper Nekfeu's studio album, is second in the ranking.

Then comes the ex-idol of the young (433,656 sales for "Johnny", repertoire in symphonic version). Johnny even remains number one if we combine with his two other solo albums ("My country is love", 84,651 copies sold; "The album of his life", 54,323; a total of 572,630).

And that without taking into account the live album of Vieilles Canailles where he appears alongside Jacques Dutronc and Eddy Mitchell.

"He is still the taulier, there is this passion of the French for him", commented to AFP at the end of November Michel Jankielewicz, artistic advisor of Laeticia Hallyday, widow of the star.

Next come the rappers PNL (402,854 sales for "Deux frères", boosted by a shock clip on the Eiffel Tower), Ninho (379,843 sales with "Destin") and Soprano (337,403 for "Phoenix"). Rap albums occupying 5 of the top 10 places.

© 2020 AFP